


Megaforce VS Mission Mercury

by SpringStar2004



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Megaforce
Genre: Anniversary, Canon Rewrite, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25612324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringStar2004/pseuds/SpringStar2004
Summary: Megaforce sucked. Just about everyone can agree on that. But how about you bring some actual pirates into the mix, and we'll see what happens? That's Mission Mercury. So get ready for some insanity.
Relationships: Emma Goodall/Orion, Jake Holling/Gia Moran
Kudos: 6





	1. The Guardian Awakens

Troy yawned as Ms. Garcia continued scribbling on the whiteboard. He could not wait for science class, which he took with his friends Noah, Jake, Emma and Gia, but at present he was stuck in geometry class. Looking down at his notebook, he realized that he'd been scribbling music notes on the paper, and quickly crossed them out.  
“Earth to Troy Burrows, are you here?” His neighbor, a teen who seemed to be engrossed in a novel under her desk, leaned over and tapped his shoulder. “Ms. Garcia just asked you a question.”  
Troy lifted his head and scanned the board. It was a complex trigonometry equation accompanied by a sketch of two overlapping right-angled triangles. He grabbed his calculator and entered a quick sequence of numbers and functions, then looked back at the board to double check. “Uh… Sine alpha equals 0.6 inches in parentheses times tangent beta equals 2.9 inches, also in parentheses, rounds out to 439?”  
Ms. Garcia shook her head. “Incorrect, Troy. Anyone else?”  
Troy buried his face in his hands as the problem moved on. Noah would have solved the problem in half the time and gotten it right to boot, as would Gia in all likeliness, which he knew extremely well. Steeling himself, Troy resolved to ask Noah to help him with his homework and then checked his watch. Five minutes until trigonometry hell was over.  
Before he could recalculate the equation, though, the sound of an explosion echoed throughout the school and everyone jumped. Rubble rained down outside the windows, and flattened-egg shaped aircraft could be seen in the sky.  
The door swung open and a very familiar girl rushed in, her dark hair bouncing around her shoulders. “Ms. Garcia, we need to get to safety. Mr. Goldstein sent me to guide you to the bomb shelter.”  
“We have a bomb shelter?” someone asked.  
“As of now, the underground computer room is our bomb shelter,” the girl replied, and then looked up at Troy, whose heart skipped a beat. **Emma**. “Hey Troy, we still up for meeting with the gang at Ernie's Brainfreeze?”  
Troy's face flushed slightly as he nodded and quickly turned around to pack away his notebook and calculator. He'd had a crush on Emma ever since middle school, and it often made him a tad awkward in front of her.  
More explosions could be heard as the students raced down the hall to the aforementioned shelter. As he ran, Troy glanced at a window and thought: “I wish there were Power Rangers around to save the day!”

“Gosei! Wake up! G-G-Gosei!” Tensou called, to no avail. The Eltarian was still in a cryo-comatic state from his transport to Earth several thousand years ago, and everything the android had tried to wake him up had failed. The first time he’d tried in the last hundred years was when the demons in Mariner Bay rose, through Dai Shi’s escape, and now the Galaxy Armada was attacking. Tensou could not feel any new connections to the morphing grid, meaning that there were no new Power Rangers to protect the Earth- and the Samurai Ranger clans were still fighting their own battle, so they wouldn’t be of any help.  
He made one last attempt- “Gosei! Please wake up!” To his joy, the figure in the cryotube started moving slightly. The android rushed to open it, and a cloud of chilled nitrogen poured out.  
“Tensou, my faithful companion.” Gosei opened his eyes and gazed up at the cave. “I am awake now, and ready to protect the Earth!” He then tried to get up, but a spasm in his muscles stopped him from doing so. “Or at least, I will be as soon as my body warms up again.”  
Tensou spun in circles, waiting for Gosei to thaw and ranting all the while. “Th-th-the Galaxy Armada is attacking, and there are no rangers!”  
Gosei frowned through a layer of fluffy ice threads that had piled on his face. “You’re saying that this planet is unprotected?” The ice had started melting, and water was dripping in his burnt-sienna eyes. The nitrogen quickly dispersed, and he could feel the blood within his veins warm up and start circulating. “How are you warming me up so fast?”  
Tensou let out a slight chuckle. “M-m-modern Earth technology allows even this cave to have heating. G-G-Gosei, we need to make new rangers!”  
Laughing at the android’s worry, Gosei finally managed to clamber out of the cryotube. The light orange of his skin had already started to darken thanks to the newfound warmth, and the dark blue fabric of his robes fell about him. “Ah, Tensou. I will need time to activate the morphers, but, as I am unfamiliar with Earth, I shall need you to find my new rangers. Feel free to use any method you deem right.”  
“Th-th-thank you, Gosei!” Tensou’s wheels spun as he zipped off into the cave, and Gosei rose to his feet. The sunlight was visible from where he was standing, and, as he strode towards the entrance to the cave, his body could be seen visibly filling with energy.

“Gosh, Troy, are you okay?” A dark-skinned student rushed over, bouncing a soccer ball into his hand as he did so. His black shirt was sticking to his chest, showing that he’d been exercising.  
“”Jaaaake, Troy’s a big guy. He can take care of himself,” a blonde girl exclaimed, rolling her eyes and yanking on the back of Jake’s shirt. She had obviously been hit by shrapnel, since the sleeves of her yellow leather jacket were all ripped up and were edged with red.  
“Good to see you too, Gia,” Jake retorted, and then he smiled. “But for real now, it’s good to see you. Anyone seen Noah? I want to show him this awesome new trick I did.”  
“I’m right here,” someone called out and Jake turned around to see another student wiping his glasses. “Hey Jake. Hey Troy, what happened?” Noah asked, walking over and reaching out to grab a piece of glass from Troy’s jacket.  
“A cannonball or something hit a window when I was standing in front of it.” Troy winced as he pulled a sliver of glass out of his arm.  
Gia let out a shrill whistle. “Man, that must have hurt.”  
“What must have hurt?” Emma was standing behind Gia, a small camera in one hand and a pink sweatshirt in the other. “Hi Gia, Jake, Noah, Tr-” She broke off her sentence when she spotted Troy.  
“Hey Emma…” Troy's voice trailed off, and Noah caught him as he crumpled to the floor.  
Gia knelt and grabbed his hand. “I think he's in shock. Those cuts can't be deep enough to cause him to collapse of blood loss… right?”  
Emma scanned the room, her face paling. There seemed to be a lack of yellow vests on their side of the shelter. “Does anyone know where there's a medic?”  
Noah shook his head. “I don't think that our school medics will know what to do. My mom volunteers on ambulances from time to time, and we don't live too far from the school, so maybe we could take him to my home.”  
“Okay. Let's go.”  
Troy was still bleeding as they rushed down the broad boulevard that marked the boundary of the school's grounds. They kept their heads low, and were continually ducking behind benches and bushes to avoid projectiles and groups of enemy soldiers. At one point, a group of enemy soldiers almost caught them, but Emma threw a stone to distract them and the group continued on their way.  
“Nice thinking, Emma,” Jake whispered to her as they walked on. Their arms were starting to get tired from the effort of carrying Troy, but Emma accepted the compliment with a faint smile and walked on.

Tensou watched as the group of four carried their friend into an apartment building, each with more scratches and cuts than when they'd left. What they'd undergone to get their friend to safety marked the greatest kind of courage. He then switched to another window of the computer screen, where a video feed showed a teen pushing a younger kid out of the way of a burst of glass. The same teen that the other four were carrying.  
The android's gaze moved to a different screen that was showing a separate group of six in colorful outfits that were standing around a monster. They were all carrying swords, and one was drawing a symbol in the air. The Samurai rangers, battling the Nighlock.  
“G-G-Gosei, I think I've found a group of rangers!” Tensou rushed to clarify as the Eltarian walked over. “People that could become rangers.”  
Gosei smiled at Tensou. “I understand. Give them time to rest, then we'll watch them further.”

“Mom?” Noah called as he unlocked the door to the apartment. “You home?”  
Silence.  
Noah groaned and opened the door, making room for his friends to carry Troy in. A milky plastic binder lay on the table, along with a piece of paper. Noah made a beeline for the paper while Jake and Gia placed Troy onto a couch, careful not to get blood on the suede. Troy stirred, groaning, and they let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding.  
“Dear Noah, I will not be here for some time because I’m volunteering on the ambulances. I’ve left you a binder of instructions for dealing with many common ailments, and the key to the medicine cabinet is hanging on the handle of the cabinet.  
“Love, Mom.”  
“Well, looks like I’ve got some work to do,” Emma stated as she grabbed the binder, while Noah headed off in the direction of the bathroom. She flipped through the pages filled with tidy flowing script for a couple of minutes before finding what she needed. “He’s not in shock. He just collapsed from an overload of stress, it seems, so we may as well clean those cuts while he’s here.”  
Noah walked back into the room with a box full of bottles and jars. “We have to clean the cuts, since who knows what might have gotten into them. Get the rubbing alcohol.”  
Emma took out a small bottle and a piece of cotton wool. Soaking the cotton with the antiseptic, she then rubbed the cuts lightly, making Troy hiss with pain. “Yikes, that stings,” he muttered through clenched teeth.  
“You sounded like a dying cat, you know that?” Jake teased as Emma continued wiping at Troy’s arm. “I bet that if it had happened to me, I’d be silent.”  
“Oh yeah? Let’s try you, Holling.” Gia grabbed the alcohol from the table and started chasing him around the apartment, much to Noah’s surprise and horror.  
Troy twisted his head to look at his friends, who were chasing each other while laughing at the top of their lungs. It seemed to have distracted him from the pain, because he made no further reaction while Emma wrapped the cuts in bandages.  
“Thanks Emma.”  
“You're welcome.” Emma was blushing slightly, and Troy wondered if it had anything to do with him.  
“Hey, you guys. Why don't we head over to Ernie's Brainfreeze? I'm sure Troy could use some frozen yogurt,” Noah suggested, attracting Gia and Jake's attention instantly. The two of them made a beeline to the door, Jake practically parkouring over the couch in his haste, while the other three followed in a more calm fashion.  
“To the froyo we go!” Jake called laughingly, slamming the door open and racing outside, disregarding the sounds of explosions. Noah turned back to lock the door, and then he ran to catch up with his friends.  
“Oy! Wait for me!”

“Froyo!” all five cheered as they bumped their cups of frozen yogurt together. Outside the shopping center the missiles still rained down full force, but they'd somehow made it to the shop. Now they could celebrate with some nice cold froyo.

“Tensou, you had to choose teenagers?” Gosei asked, disappointment lacing his voice.  
“G-G-G-Gosei, teenagers combine the bodies of grownups with the spirit of children. Th-th-th-they are willing to fight for what's right because they can see what's wrong!” Tensou reassured him, the little robot's arm reaching up to switch tabs. “T-t-t-two are already fans of the P-P-Power Rangers. They know what w-w-w-we need.”  
Gosei sighed exasperatedly. “Very well, Tensou. If they perform to my expectations, they will become Power Rangers.”

Jake was chowing down on his froyo when a blur of color engulfed his vision. Red to his right, yellow to his left, pink and blue across from him, and black overlaid on everything. At first he thought that he'd gotten hit on the head, seeing as the colors were aligned with his friends who were wearing the same colors, but then the black thickened.  
“Ow!”  
“Does anyone have a flashlight?”  
“What's going on?”  
“Someone spilled their froyo!”  
Rays of light shone in and illuminated them as though a curtain had been swept aside. The five were lying in a tangled heap, and apparently Jake had dropped his froyo, because there it was next to him. Gia’s normally orderly hair looked like a bird’s nest, and Noah’s glasses were hanging from his ear- which he quickly corrected.  
“Where are we?” a voice that Jake recognized as Troy’s asked. “How did we get here?”  
Nobody answered. Then the sound of swishing fabric alerted them to someone walking towards them, and Jake managed to extricate himself out of the pile of teens just before the person stopped. From the silhouette that was standing in front of them, he assumed that Troy had done the same and was now positioning himself so as to defend his friends. Jake quickly got up and joined him.   
“Who are you and why are we here?” Troy snapped, brandishing his froyo spoon like a weapon. Gia attempted to stifle a giggle to no avail.  
The figure laughed. “You show great courage, despite your pitiful weapon of choice.”  
Gia somersaulted up, ready to spring. “It was all he had!”  
Noah snorted from the floor. “And I bet that even only using a spoon he could defeat you, whoever you are.”  
Emma nodded, a half-smirk curving her mouth. “You go, guys! Show this- this- thing what for!”  
The figure moved out of the direct light, letting the five teens see who it was. Noah gasped as the light of the sun colored the swishing fabric in a deep midnight blue and the figure underneath it in a dark orange. “Guys, he’s an Eltarian!” He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled Emma up.  
“Very good. I am indeed from the planet of Eltar.” His eyes shone in a burnt umber tone as the light struck them, revealing glinting irises and oval-shaped pupils. “I am Gosei of the Toudon family. Zordon of Eltar was my mentor.”  
Troy blinked confusedly. “My favorite team may be Dino Thunder, but even I know that Zordon was over ten thousand years old when he died. You don’t look ten thousand years old.”  
Gosei laughed. His laugh was both drums and bells, ringing throughout the enclosed area. “After Zordon was trapped by Rita Repulsa, I and others of his students chose to let ourselves be placed in a cryo-comatic state and sent to other planets, to help protect them should that be necessary. I have only just woken up, and so have no knowledge of the goings on.”  
Emma smiled as a small robot rolled in, twitching its head this way and that. “G-G-Gosei, I told you- it's the G-G-Galaxy-” The little robot broke off speaking, and started spinning on its axis.  
Gosei smiled and waved a hand at the robot. “Please excuse Tensou. After millennia of trying to wake me for crisis after crisis, he's grown quite excitable.”   
“Th-th-th-the Galaxy Armada!” Tensou finished.  
Gosei frowned. “There have been many leaders of the Galaxy Armada before I was born, and I'm sure that there have been many since. Who is the current leader?”  
In reply, Tensou cast a hologram into the air. It showed a horrendous-looking creature with one blue eye and one green eye.  
“I am Vrak,” the creature said, then added, “And I am Vekar,” in a completely different voice. “We are the Emperor of the Galaxy Armada.”  
“What the-?” Gia exclaimed, but Jake slapped his hand over her mouth.  
“We speak to you, Eltarian guardian, and no-one else. We are here to conquer the planet Terra, otherwise known as Earth. Surrender to us at noon in a week from now, and all the life on this planet will be spared. If you do not, we will sweep in and kill all life on this planet, then take it for ourselves.”  
Noah shuddered. “They make no mention of Power Rangers.”  
“If you dare to think of sending Power Rangers to defeat us, know this: there have been rangers on every planet we have defeated so far. Your rangers will be destroyed just as their predecessors on other planets were.”  
The hologram shut off automatically, leaving the five teens and Gosei staring at each other. Then everyone started yelling at once.  
“What the hell?”  
“Earth will never surrender!”  
“Who do they think they are?”  
“We need Power Rangers!”  
“Guys, calm down!”  
“I want to shoot that creature in the head with a bullet made of osmium!”  
Everyone stopped and stared at Jake, who merely shrugged. “It's a really, really, _really_ dense metal. It's also stinky.”  
Noah groaned. “Of course you'd know that and not the homework we were assigned.”  
“Considering school will be evacuated sooner or later, it doesn't really count,” Troy interrupted. He looked askance at Gosei, then placed a hand on his hip. “In any case, why did you bring us here?”  
Gosei sighed, brushing a wisp of glossy green-black hair off his forehead with a six-fingered hand. “I brought you here in order to test you.”  
“Test us for what?” Gia asked, frowning and twisting a strand of blond hair around her finger.  
“To see if you were worthy of becoming the next team of Power Rangers. Which you are. Tensou?” Gosei motioned to the robot, then shook his head. “I forgot. Tensou doesn’t have arms.”   
“Yeah, he’s not an Alpha model,” Noah blurted out. Then he flushed and covered his mouth. “Sorry. The Alpha line of androids were the ones who worked with Zordon and Dimitria. The best known one was Alpha 5, who was Zordon’s original aide.”  
Gosei looked thoughtful, memories clouding his eyes. “I don’t remember Zordon having an android aide. Would you mind showing me a picture? If that is at all possible.”  
Troy pulled out his phone, to which marvelously nothing had happened, and entered a few keywords. Then he cursed and shoved it back into his pocket. “I only found a drawing.”  
“Wait! Troy!” Noah grabbed Troy’s arm. “Wasn’t there a story about Alpha 5 attending a costume party written by the first Red Ranger? He wrote that Alpha was mistaken for a person in a costume and won the costume contest. Wouldn’t there be pictures of that?”  
“Yeah, you’re right.” Troy pulled out his phone again, and after a few minutes of searching he found a photograph from 1993. It was not the greatest quality, but it showed a red-and-black robot with a gold head and a golden lightning bolt down his chest. “I think this is him.”  
Gosei gazed at the photo silently. A tear slipped down from his face and soaked into the fabric of his robes.  
“What's wrong?” Emma asked, waving her hand around. At the same time, Troy pulled his phone back, then gave a hiss of pain.   
“Damn!”  
“Dude, you okay?” Jake flung an arm around Troy's shoulders, making him wince.  
“Jake, did you forget about his scrapes?” Gia scolded him. Jake quickly removed his arm and smiled sheepishly.  
Gosei, meanwhile, was whispering words in an unfamiliar language that sounded almost musical. Probably his childhood tongue, Noah realized as he placed a hand on Gosei's shoulder, something that was easy considering the Eltarian was not taller than Noah himself.  
At last, Gosei managed to calm down and turned to the teens. "I'm sorry. That robot- he bears the mark of King Lexian of Edenoi. The same man who built Tensou and gave him sentience." After he wiped a stray tear from his cheek, he walked into a darker area and returned a few minutes later carrying a tray of tiki-head shaped objects.  
"Those are our morphers, aren't they?" Noah asked excitedly. He reached out and took the one that shimmered in the same cobalt blue as his shirt. "They seem to match our clothes. Odd, isn't it?"  
Troy laughed, taking the one that emitted a red glow. "I remember hearing Dr. Oliver joking that he'd need to get more black clothes after he became the black ranger in Reefside's team of rangers. I guess it's a thing for rangers to wear their ranger color even in civilian mode."  
Gia and Jake almost clobbered each other diving for the morpher that was shining in a black light that seemed almost purple, but then the latter pointed out that the former was wearing a yellow shirt- and grabbed the black morpher. Gia relented, realizing that Jake had a point, and took the one with the yellow glow, leaving Emma with a morpher that was glimmering the same rosy pink as her hoodie.  
"Let's go!" Jake yelled, flipping over his morpher and trying to activate it.  
Gosei smiled. "I know you're probably eager to go out and fight, but I think some training would be in order- especially considering only two of you have any idea how to defend yourself. So I'll show you how to morph and train you with your new weapons, and then you will be ready."  
"Awww…" Jake groaned, but followed his friends into the sunlight, ready to become a ranger as soon as possible.


	2. The Protectors Rise

This was Emma's fifth day training to become a ranger, and she _still_ couldn't remember her weapon's name. Jake was having an awesome time, judging from the woots echoing off the cliffs, and Troy was jumping from ledge to ledge, checking out his newly enhanced agility. Gia was trying out her weapon on a dummy, and Noah was standing right next to Emma and working on his aim.   
Emma sighed and aimed the weapon, which was a rather odd combination of shield and laser blaster, at the target. "Phoenix blaste- no, phoenix gu- no- arrrghhh!" She let loose her frustration in a blast of pink light, striking the target dead center.  
Noah rolled his eyes next to her. "It's the Phoenix Shot, Emma." Then he loosed a volley of blue laser arrows from his crossbow, shouting out "Shark Bowgun!" as he did.  
"Snake Axe!" Jake descended on his friends like a streak of darkness straight from outer space, whirling his axe and cleaving Gia's dummy in half. He grinned wildly as the axe hit the ground, making it split. "This is so awesome!!!" he yelled, but his enthusiasm was swallowed by Troy's roar of delight.  
A red holographic dragon had formed around the helmetless red ranger, and now he was diving towards the sand at breakneck speed. "Dragon Sword! Heyah!" The sword was wreathed in flames as Troy slammed it into the sand upon landing, then brought it up to meet Gia's attack.  
"Tiger Claw! Oh no you don't, Troy!" Three swipes of yellow energy met the flaming sword and both rangers flew backwards, knocking the other three over in the process.  
Everyone laughed and extricated themselves from the pile of rangers. Gosei, who was watching from the sidelines with Tensou, also laughed, despite knowing that the rangers wouldn't have much more time to have fun.  
Their suits faded away in a burst of multicolored light, and Jake would have continued fooling around had a yellow figure not fallen on him. At first he thought it was the yellow ranger, but then he heard an angered yell and turned to see Gia kicking the butt of a strangely mechanical-sounding _thing_. He quickly slammed an elbow into the yellow thing and made it drop to the ground. It seemed that Troy had already defeated a bunch of the yellow things, which were now lying on the sand around him, and he now held his morpher in one hand and was pulling out a card from his pocket with the other.  
"Come on, guys! We need to morph!" he yelled, waving the card around. Troy pulled open the slot in the morpher and inserted the card, slamming it shut in tandem with his friends.  
 **"It's morphin time! Go go Megaforce!"**  
The suits materialized on their bodies in flashes of colorful light, then the helmets formed from holographs of their animals. Gia also did a backflip for whatever reason.

"Earth's defenders never surrender!"   
The other four groaned. "Trooooyyyyy… you know you don't have to do that!"  
Troy simply shook his head and charged into battle, blasting the yellow and metallic figures left right and center. Emma grabbed her blaster from the hip holster and followed him, shooting with precision at the enemy soldiers. Several dozen of them fell to Troy's enthusiastic blasts and Emma's precise aim.  
Meanwhile, Jake, Gia and Noah had grabbed more cards and slid them into the morphers. In a flash of purple, yellow and blue their weapons materialized in their hands, and Jake and Gia charged into the fray, leaving Noah to provide ranged cover. Blue lasers found their marks in the enemy soldiers, and the other four rangers dodged them while adding their own fighting style to the fray.  
Emma fell back to where Noah stood, snapping her morpher shut and grabbing her weapon out of the air. With her blaster in one hand and the Phoenix Shot in the other, she shot blasts of pink energy double time at the enemy soldiers.  
"Hiyaaaaaahhhh!" Gia yelled, spinning on one foot and swiping all the soldiers around her with the Tiger Claw. They all fell and exploded in a sheet of flame. The yellow ranger grinned, then charged forward to knock the wires out of a bunch of metal guys who were sneaking up on Jake.  
The black ranger gave her a thumbs up in thanks and catapulted himself over the soldiers in front of him, using the boulders behind him as leverage. As he jumped, he swung his axe and split some of the yellow guys down the center, then, upon landing, decapitated the rest. He twirled the axe and grinned smugly as the enemy guys caught fire and exploded.  
"Hey Noah! Troy! Can anyone explain what the hell these guys are?" Gia called as she pulled out her blaster and shot burst after burst of yellow energy at the remaining guys. Troy and Jake moved to stand next to her, and their blasters formed a swirling ball of colored energy that landed on the enemy soldiers and made them explode. Jake gave a whoop as the three of them returned their blasters to the holsters and did a fistbump.  
"I think those might have been the enemy grunts," Noah commented as he and Emma walked over, removing their helmets as they did so. "Every enemy will have a brute soldier whose only power is in numbers so they can try to wear the rangers out before the actual battle."  
Troy nodded. "Yeah. I remember that in Reefside we had these really weird-looking things called tyrannodrones, and then these video game thingies called triptoids showed up too. Though from what I understand, most of the time there will only be one type of foot soldiers." He removed his helmet and tried to position it under his arm, to no avail. It slid out of his grip and onto the sand, making his friends laugh.  
Emma moved towards him and ruffled his hair. She had to stand on tiptoes to do it, and it made him blush. "Oh, Troy…"  
Jake took off his helmet, then frowned at the top of the cliffs. “Hey, what’s that?”  
“What’s what?” Gia was still wearing her helmet. “I can’t see anything.”  
“That weird-looking thingy standing up there. It seems to be laughing.” Noah spotted it as well, and he beckoned to Gosei. “Hey, can you come over here for a moment?”  
Gosei walked over, then emitted a half-cough, half-sniff sound that the rangers now knew to be the Eltarian version of a groan. "It's some sort of alien. My guess is that it was sent by the Galaxy Armada to capture me."  
Troy rolled his eyes, picked up his helmet, and cupped his free hand around his mouth. "Hey you! Yes, you with the face! We know you're there. Get down here so we can make your butt explode!"  
Gia shook her head and yanked Troy backwards. “Good grief, Troy. Just because we’re power rangers does _not_ mean that you can take down any monster in your path!”

Troy shook himself free and put on his helmet, grabbing his morpher and sliding in a card as he snapped the clips closed. He then shut the morpher and grabbed the Dragon Sword out of the air. “You have no idea what I can do, Gia Moran. DRAGON SPIRIT MANIFEST!!!” As before, the red holographic dragon formed around him, and Troy launched himself into the air.  
Emma looked at the red ranger in awe for a moment before snapping on her helmet. “Hey, let me try! PHOENIX SPIRIT MANIFEST!” A pink energy flickered into existence around her, taking the form of a phoenix for just long enough to let her soar up onto the top of the cliffs before it disappeared and dropped her. Emma collapsed on a rock, groaning as the breath she’d been holding was knocked out of her lungs. “I do not understand how Troy did this…”  
Jake made a motion to raise his axe, but Gia grabbed it and elbowed him in the ribcage. “Whoa there, Holling. Those two are the only ones who have spirits of animals that can fly, meaning that we are stranded here.”  
“I wouldn’t be so fast to judge, Moran.” Jake pulled his axe free of Gia’s grip, still wincing from her blow, and raised it to the sky. “SNAKE SPIRIT MANIFEST!” The black holographic energy formed around him into a snake that hissed at Gia before it started slithering up the cliffside. From inside the snake, the still-helmetless black ranger made a face at the yellow ranger, who sighed and grabbed Noah’s arm.  
“Your spirit is that of an aquatic animal. There is no way you could get up there without help,” Gia pointed out, then raised her Tiger Claw to the heavens. “TIGER SPIRIT MANIFEST!” The weapon emitted waves of yellow energy, but nothing else happened. Gia tried again, but to no avail.  
Troy sighed, realizing what was going on. He stepped back from his battle, and, summoning the dragon spirit again, made his way down to Gia and Noah. What he didn't expect, though, was for the monster to follow him, spreading beetle-like wings into the air and flying down.  
Jake looked at Emma, who was lying on a rock. "Hey, Em? The fight's down there now."  
"The spirit thing drained me. Can't get down," Emma said softly. She did look tired, the black ranger realized.  
Jake hoisted her up over his shoulder, holding his axe in his other hand, and summoned the snake spirit. He was starting to enjoy this thing, being a ranger and being all badass. Then the ethereal snake dissipated while they were still a couple of meters above the ground.

Emma, who was actually wearing her helmet, managed to roll upon landing and struggle to her feet, but Jake, who was still only thinking about being a badass and wasn't wearing his helmet, hit the sand hard and ended up sprawled out with his whole body aching. And as if to add insult to injury, Gia walked over and kicked his leg. "This is why you always wear your helmet, idiot!" Then she ran back into the fight.  
Emma pulled out her blaster and started shooting from a crouched position, a few feet in front of Jake. "Don't worry, J. I got your back."  
Gosei approached and helped Jake up. "Are you okay?" he asked, and, like every time she'd heard him, Emma was struck by how musical his voice was. It was as though he was constantly singing rather than speaking, intoning his words as though he wasn't used to pronouncing the consonants.  
"I'm just peachy. Thanks, Gosei." Jake's voice was loaded with sarcasm as he looked around for his helmet.  
"Looking for this?" Emma enquired playfully as she tossed the black helmet to her teammate. The snake emblazoned on it glowed for a moment as it landed in the black ranger's hands, then it disappeared and materialized over Jake's head.  
"I did not know it could do that," Jake exclaimed, pulling his blaster out of the holster and aiming for the monster's legs. The black laser bullets hit dead on; he let out a woot, then shot another spray of blasts.  
"Hey, Jake, I have an idea. Do you think you could give me a boost?"   
"Yup, I got ya. What do you want me to do?"  
"Serpent-phoenix launch!" Emma retreated a few hundred feet, then ran up and jumped onto the blade of the black ranger's axe. Jake understood exactly what she wanted him to do- he hoisted the weapon and launched the pink ranger into the sky, where she pressed the triggers on her Phoenix Shot and blaster at the same time. "Phoenix double blast!"  
The other three rangers ducked hastily as a swirling beam of pink energy slammed into the monster. Noah inclined his head as Emma landed on one knee, her blaster and Phoenix Shot grasped in her hands as she rolled forward. "Nice job, Emma."  
Troy nodded. "A bit unconventional, but whatever works for you."  
Noah couldn't keep himself together and snorted. "Unconventional? Troy, have you got any idea how many times that kind of thing has been done? Besides, Emma is a team player. She knows her strengths and will play to them."  
Gia turned their attention to their enemy. "He's getting up!"  
Troy scanned the five weapons with his gaze, then yelled in the Eltarian's direction. "Hey Gosei, is there a combining function for these?"  
Gosei shouted back: "Yes! Connect the two sky weapons, then the two land weapons with the sea weapon, and then combine the two. Use the sky, land and sea dynamic cards."  
"You got it, Gosei!" Troy opened his buckle and searched through the cards inside. One was blank except for the shadows of the earth and water symbols and a bold air symbol, and he smiled. But Emma plucked it out of his hand and looked at it intently, then searched through her own cards until she found the matching one.  
"Hey, yours is red and mine's pink. Is there really a difference?"  
"Beats me."  
Carefully, so as not to hit Emma's hands, Troy slid the Dragon Sword's blade through the slot at the bottom of the Phoenix Shot. Meanwhile, Gia, Jake and Noah had figured out how to connect the Shark Bowgun, Tiger Claw and Snake Axe, and the blue ranger held out the combined weapon. "Bring 'em together, Troy."  
The Shark Bowgun also had a slot in the handle, and Troy slid the blade of the sword into it. Then he retrieved his card from Emma, and the two of them placed the cards onto the blaster, where they grew to size.  
"Sky dynamic, activate!"  
Noah added his own card, letting it grow to size. "Sea dynamic, activate!"  
"Land dynamic, activate!" Gia and Jake chorused as they laid their own cards on the blaster. Jake raised his hand for a hi-five, and the yellow ranger obliged willingly.  
"Everyone grab hold!"  
The five rangers gripped the blaster tightly, and golden energy flowed through the channels of the weapon. Gia looked at her fellow rangers and smiled. "I suggest we call this the Dynamic Victory Charge. All in favor?"  
Instead of a reply, Emma pulled the trigger.  
 **"Dynamic Victory Charge!"**

"Booyah! In your face, Galaxy Armada!" Jake called out with a grin as the monster fell to the ground and exploded into flames.  
Troy, who was left holding the blaster on his own, leaned it on the sand with a sigh of relief. "Damn, this thing is heavy."  
Gosei hurried over, his dark blue robes- which they had learned were made of a plant material much like cotton- swishing around him. His eyes were rimmed with blue, a sign that he was worried. "If it was in fact sent to capture me, then wouldn't it have grown to mega-size by now?"  
Troy and Noah exchanged smiles. "I honestly think it was sent to test us as rangers. The Emperor is probably up there, stunned that a bunch of rangers with only four and a half days of training destroyed this guy."  
"Come on, he didn't even have any special powers! What were we supposed to be scared of?"  
Gia and Emma locked gazes, then turned to look at Noah and Troy, who were still ranting about how lame the monster was. They couldn't help it; they busted out laughing, and so did Jake. Their ranger suits faded away in flashes of light as they flopped onto the sand, and the two girls got sand in their hair. Still, they didn't stop cracking up.  
"Even Mesogog did better on his first attempt at taking over Reefside, and the dude was being held back by Anton Mercer!" Troy groaned and fell onto the sand, his suit disappearing in a burst of red light. "Power down." He reached out with his foot and knocked Noah over as well, making the blue ranger fall on his butt.  
Noah sighed. "Power down." His suit disappeared, and, making his way toward Troy, he slapped the red ranger upside the head. "You don't just trip me, get it?"  
Troy rolled his eyes and swung himself upright. Brushing his clothes off, he headed in Gosei's direction. The Eltarian nodded at him as he walked into the cave that served as their base and gazed at the shelves carved into the rock. They held figures of previous rangers, seemingly cast from a dull metal or plastic. Troy didn't know why these were here, but they seemed to emanate power, as though the spirit of each ranger team was held in the figures that lined the shelves.  
Troy was about to go back out of the cave, but then his gaze wandered to the Time Force figures. They seemed to flash, and then his vision whited out and he was no longer in the base. He was in his suit, running into battle alongside older and more powerful rangers. Ahead he could see a crowd of the silver grunts they'd fought before, and next to him was a silver ranger from a team he didn't recognize, one that seemed to have a very pirate-y theme. The silver ranger gave Troy a playful salute before running ahead and slashing through a bunch of grunts with a trident.  
Troy's consciousness dropped back into his body and he collapsed on the stone floor, breathless. He tried to push himself up, but failed and fell back to the floor.

"Troy, are you okay?" Emma was crouching next to him, shaking his shoulder. When did she get there? And why was the light coming in through the entrance to the cave no longer golden-yellow, but orange-red? All his friends were surrounding him, and he could see Gosei's dark robes out of the corner of his eye.  
"I think you fell asleep, Troy," Noah responded to the red ranger's unspoken question. "It's 7 PM now. You must have been really drained by that battle if you slept for four hours on a stone surface."  
Troy tried to sit up, but his body was aching from the hours he'd spent on the rocky surface and he would have fallen over had Gia not caught him by the arm. She helped him into a sitting position and gave him his water bottle, which he took gratefully. "Thanks, Gia."  
"Anytime."  
Troy drank half of the remaining water in the bottle in one go, then breathed deeply. "Guys, I think I may have had a vision."  
Jake laughed. "What kind of vision? Oh, I know- there was a scorpion in the cave."  
The red ranger shuddered. "Don't mention those creepy things! No, I think it was a vision of the future."  
Gosei looked at Troy curiously. "Were you standing near the ranger figures when this happened?"  
Troy nodded. "My eyes were drawn to the Time Force figures in particular."  
Noah froze. "Troy, the Time Force team was mostly from the future, and their green ranger had psychic powers. Could they have sent you a vision to point us in the right direction?"  
Troy shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it was of a major battle, because I was running alongside a bunch of veteran rangers. There was this one silver ranger that I couldn't place, though. I think he was from a new team."  
The blue ranger began counting off all the silver rangers he could think of. "Zhane of the Space Rangers, Ryan Mitchell of Lightspeed Rescue, Merrick of Wild Force, Tyzonn of Operation Overdrive, and I’ve heard rumors of a female silver ranger from a team known only as RPM. I don't know her name because apparently her team is from a different dimension. If the ranger wasn't one of them, can you describe him for me? Perhaps we can get a guess at what the next team will be."  
"Silver boots, pirate-y silver jacket thing, white gloves- the rest of the suit was black, except for a symbol on his chest. It looked almost like a skull and crossbones, but something was definitely different about it. Silver helmet..." Troy's voice trailed off as he tried to recall more details about the mysterious silver ranger. "He probably knew me pretty well."  
Emma moved forward and took hold of Troy's hand. "You're obviously exhausted, and frankly, so am I. How about we head home and reconvene tomorrow after a good night's sleep?"  
Everyone nodded, and Noah motioned to Tensou. "You ready, little guy?"  
Blurs of color engulfed their vision, and Troy found himself standing on the steps outside his house. Opening the door and entering, he brushed off his mom's attempt at a hug and headed for his room. Once in his room, he closed the door and collapsed on his bed.

"Hey, Troy. How was your day?"  
"I'm fine, Helena. Just tired." Troy yawned as his sister walked in and rested a hand on his shoulder. Helena was older than him, but that didn't mean they didn't have a good relationship.  
Helena tilted her head, her brunette hair spilling off her shoulder. Another reason Troy liked Emma: she resembled his sister. "Jeez, little bro. You must have been working pretty intensely at the dojo if you're this tired at this hour. Did you end up going to Ernie's with your friends?"  
Troy shook his head. "Gia was at the dojo, though. I think she might be looking into karate."  
"Or maybe she has a crush on a certain boy…" Helena teased, making Troy flush pink- as pink as Emma's ranger suit- and smack her on the back.  
"Hell no! I think Jake would have noticed if she had a crush on me, considering he follows her around like a lovesick puppy. Besides, you know my heart is given to Emma."  
"Hermione! Helena! Troy! Dinner's ready!"  
Helena sighed and headed for the door. "You know, Troy, maybe it wouldn't hurt to tell her how you feel. And it's unlike you to miss dinner, so Mom will be suspicious if you don't eat something."  
Troy stretched and kicked off his sneakers. "Sure, I'll be right there."  
As the door shut behind the middle child of the Burrows family, Troy pulled out his phone. It opened to a chat group that Noah had opened, in an attempt to keep them all in contact.

Troytheburrow, 7:36 PM  
So, you guys okay after that battle?  
Emma, 7:37 PM  
Yeah, I'm good. Kind of tired.  
JJGia, 7:37 PM  
Same as Emma.  
Jakeball, 7:39 PM  
Yeah… Not planning on doing that again anytime soon.  
PowerRangersNoah, 7:40 PM  
Well, expect more battles to come. We're Power Rangers, Jake, we don't just stand there and let monsters rampage.  
Troytheburrow, 7:42 PM  
Guys, guys, stop fighting. See you tomorrow.

Troy slammed his phone down on the bedcovers and left the room, heading for the dining room. He loved his friends, but sometimes they just got on his nerves.


End file.
